AP Photo

In March, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson vowed his administration would fight to pass a program of medical assistance for elderly Americans. “If not this week,” he pledged, “if not this month, if not this year, [then at] the earliest possible date.”

Nearly 20 years had passed since President Harry S. Truman first called for a national program to guarantee health coverage for all Americans. When Johnson finally signed the Medicare and Medicaid Bill on July 30, 1965 – 45 years ago today – he declared, "We marvel not simply at the passage of this bill, but that it took so many years."